The description of relationship between grammar and working memory in Turkish children with Down syndrome

ABSTRACT THE DESCRIPTION OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GRAMMAR AND WORKING MEMORY IN TURKISH CHILDREN WITH DOWN SYNDROME Merve Nur SARIYER Department of Speech and Language Therapy Anadolu University, Graduate School of Health Sciences Institute, January, 2017 Supervisor: Doç. Dr. Bülent TOĞRAM Studies indicate that children with Down Syndrome(DS) widely exhibit language and speech disorder in addition to their cognitive problems and other health issues. Comparing to other intellectual disability groups such as Williams Syndrome and Fragile X Syndrome, in this group expressive language ability is more affected than receptive language. Furthermore, studies conducted for different languages such as English, Italian, Spanish and Greek have reported that these children have specific grammatical problems. On the other hand, recent studies argue that there is a correlation between working memory and language problems in this group. The aim of current study is to reveal detailed grammatical characteristics of Turkish children with DS and to show its relationship with the working memory. 12 DS children between ages 6:7-15;11 with mild cognitive disability and language age matched typically developing children have participated in the study. In order to analyze the grammar, Turkish versions of Test of Early Language Development Third Edition and Test of Language Development Primary Fourth Edition used and a spontaneous language sample is taken. The language sample analyzed using Turkish version of Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) and compared to the language age matched typically developing children. To analyse verbal and nonverbal working memory, Auditory Verbal Digit Span Test- Form B (GISD-B) and Turkish Nonword Repetition Test have been used. According to the results, Down Syndrome group showed significantly lower performance on both morphology and syntax than control group. Comprehension of grammar found better than the production. It's also been found that there is a moderate to high positive correlation between grammatical performance and verbal and nonverbal working memory in children with DS. The results of this study are similar with the previous studies done for other languages but new for Turkish. Keywords: Down Syndrome, grammatical problems, working memory, Turkish